Priest in Thailand aids blind people in acquiring job skills

From CNN GO in Asia:

Going through life without vision is hard enough in any country, but in Thailand’s it’s a particularly tough battle.

For those of you who have visited or live in Bangkok, try and recall how many beeping pedestrian-crossing signals you’ve seen. Or how many Braille magazines you’ve spotted at the bookstore. Even worse, how many times have you stumbled and cursed your way down a pothole-ridden sidewalk? Our guess is, respectively, hardly any, never have and way too often.

Father Carlo Velardo has spent the past 30 years making it a bit easier for the blind to experience healthy and productive lives in Thailand. As director of the Nonthaburi Skills Development Centre for the Blind (pictured), his facility is dedicated to not only providing friendship and care to his students, but also giving them the training they need to make a living in a city that can be a challenge even if you aren’t disabled.

Velardo came to Thailand in 1978 from Italy, four months after being ordained. “A Belgian fellow and I were the first Salesians in Thailand,” says the soft-spoken priest, referring to his religious order, the Salesians of Don Bosco, which was founded in the mid 19th century. “We didn’t know much about what we were doing then, so we just winged it.”

His school today is a far cry from what it was during those uncertain days. “When I started, the blind were shunned and common perception was that they could only do two things -- sell lottery tickets and be telephone operators. But we started teaching our students carpentry and woodwork and were able to get some of them jobs, but it was hard,” he says, as the realities of insurance, malpractice and on-the-job injuries gave many factory owners cold feet.

“The ironic thing is, we even showed them statistics proving that the blind have far less instances of injuries than those who are sighted!” he says, laughing. “When you can see, you get careless and work too fast -- a pretty girl walks by and you end up cutting off your finger. But a blind person has much less to distract them; they work more diligently and concentrate harder. So we rethought our strategy, and came up with the idea of training our students to be massage therapists. We managed to find two excellent instructors, and the program began in 1983.”

Velardo’s program recently got approval from the Ministry of Public Health to license graduates as Doctors of Thai Traditional Massage, an accolade not easy to come by. Most graduates find work right away and continue to hone their skills over many years. The center, located in north of Bangkok in Nonthaburi’s Pakkred district, sees about 150 customers per day.

A tour of the training facility gives an insight into the thoroughness of the course. All the traditional learning tools are there -- mannequins, nerve and muscle charts, maps of the body labeled with organ names and acupuncture points -- but all the names are in Braille. The charts, maps and mannequins are all covered in different textures of sandpaper, cloth, rope and wood to help the students navigate by hand alone.

The two-year course accepts only 40 first-year students each year, and even has its own registered trademark. Their logo is a sure sign that the therapists have been properly trained. The campus includes a gymnasium where students can get exercise and improve their self confidence.

“It’s quite daunting for a blind person to play baseball or run a race, but once they get good at it they think ‘Well, what else can I do?’” says Velardo. One of those things is judo, which is also taught at the school. Velardo tells an interesting story of how it started.

“Blind people in Bangkok -- usually lottery vendors -- were constantly getting robbed, but all the police could say was ‘Can you describe the thief?’ Eventually, a group got angry enough that they burned down a police station, which was too much. I came up with the idea of teaching the students self-defense, and managed to get the police to supply us with instructors.

“It was rough at first, but it got better quickly. I got some newspapers to cover the story, and wouldn’t you know it, pretty soon the assaults all but stopped! Some students have even won national judo competitions,” says Velardo smiling.

Velardo comes across as a simple man, a priest who is doing his duty not for fortune or glory, but to make a genuine difference. So after all these years of training the blind, what makes him continue?

“Satisfaction at seeing my students join society in a productive way," he says. “That’s all I need.”